Connecticut Cuts Stanford Down to Size

The Stanford players could do the math, stunning as it was.

“The game’s 26-8, and you’re behind 18 points, what seems like three, four, five minutes into the ballgame,” forward Mark Madsen said. “That’s rough.”

Connecticut, stripped of its best player because of injury--and waiting to be stripped of its No. 1 ranking--went into Maples Pavilion on Saturday and blitzed Stanford with a pressure defense the No. 4 Cardinal simply couldn’t handle in a 70-59 loss to the Huskies before 7,391.

Never mind that Stanford rallied, fighting back to 30-26 at halftime and repeatedly getting as close as two, three and five points in the second.

The Huskies--20-1 after playing without injured player-of-the-year candidate Richard “Rip” Hamilton for the second game in a row--stole the game and didn’t give it back.

“We’ve played 21 games this year, and St. John’s last week, that was terrific, but this was special,” Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun said.

“Rip being hurt, that’s not what I’m talking about. It was, ‘Are we ready to win?’ Not, ‘Who don’t we have,’ but ‘Let’s see who we do have.’ The loss Monday to Syracuse, we never gave ourselves a chance. I don’t know if I could be prouder of a regular-season game. It was a tremendous win.”

When it wasn’t Khalid El-Amin--and it usually was--it was Ricky Moore or Albert Mouring, hassling and harassing Stanford into 13 first-half turnovers, turning steals into layups on the other end.

The score was 17-4, then 22-6, then 26-8.

“Man, that’s not a good feeling. You just know you’ve got to fight back,” said Stanford point guard Arthur Lee, who made only four of 13 shots under the duress and finished with 12 points. Teammate Kris Weems was only three for 16, scoring 10, as Stanford was held to 35% shooting.

It was the second year in a row Connecticut’s pressure has been too much for Stanford, which fell to 19-4.

Last year, Connecticut beat Stanford, 76-56, during the same sort of midseason lull Stanford is fighting this year.

This one was supposed to be different, with the game at Maples, Hamilton nursing a badly bruised thigh that also leaves him questionable for the Huskies’ next game Wednesday, and center Jake Voskuhl returning after sitting out a game because of a foot injury.

But once again, Connecticut--much as Arizona did recently in Tucson--exposed Stanford as a team susceptible to great defensive pressure and quickness, and Stanford threw in a bugaboo of its own--free-throw shooting.

“You do all the hard work to get a shot up and go to the free-throw line, and then don’t get the points,” Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery said. “We didn’t convert from the line. They make 24 of 29, 82%, versus our 50%.”

Stanford made only 12 of 24--and only four of 11 in the second half.

“Traditionally, we have been a great free-throw shooting team. We just didn’t perform,” said Madsen, who had 13 hard-won points and nine rebounds, but went three for eight at the line, where he struggles to shoot 60%. “I missed probably four or five free throws down the stretch that could have helped, and I’m frustrated about it,” he said. “Some other guys who usually make their free throws missed one or two.”

Still, Connecticut’s lead was only two with 2:34 left after a short jump shot by Stanford guard Mike McDonald, but Kevin Freeman answered on the other end and made the score 58-54 with 2:05 left, and the Huskies scored seven points in a row.

It was the second loss in four games for Stanford, which lost to Arizona, 78-76, and survived at California, 57-55, on Wednesday. It also ended a 24-game winning streak against nonconference teams at Maples over the last five seasons.

Not that this is the end of the world. It’s almost identical to a stretch Stanford endured last season.

“Mike felt it was such a bad experience at Connecticut last year, but he made it to the Final Four, while we were at home,” Calhoun said.

El-Amin, the point guard Calhoun chided for not taking the team on his shoulders against Syracuse with Hamilton out, took care of everything Saturday, scoring 23 points with five assists, five steals and three rebounds. He had 16 of his points and four of his steals by halftime.

The rowdy crowd at Maples did its best to hound El-Amin, taunting him about his two children (El-Amin is married) and his stocky build.

“They didn’t show any class. They didn’t represent the Pac-10 well at all,” El-Amin said.

Calhoun thought of the box score and smiled.

“Not a really good guy to taunt,” he said.

As for Maples’ renowned springy floor, El-Amin only shrugged.

“I think it helped our guys jump a little higher.”

Stanford was probably at its best when it went with a three-guard lineup with Lee, Weems and McDonald. Center Tim Young played only 16 minutes, partly because of foul trouble, and forward Pete Sauer played only 17 in a game his skills simply didn’t fit.

Freeman, who is physical and quick, made six of seven shots and finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

It was a bruising game, but Connecticut played with its aggressiveness.

“They play awfully good defense and they’re very aggressive on the ball,” Montgomery said. “UConn is not only athletic and quick, but they’re also good. Any time you face a team like that, you’re going to have some problems.”

With Connecticut once-beaten, Duke is expected to be No. 1 in the polls this week, especially after No. 3 Cincinnati’s loss to DePaul on Saturday.

“Number one. That’s out of my hands,” El-Amin said. “We’re not concerned about that. We’re concerned about us. Let the critics decide.”

Stanford is left to press on the way it did last season.

“I think we have got to realize Connecticut is a very, very good basketball team, extremely aggressive and physical,” Lee said. “We’ve just got to keep going. It’s a loss. We’ve just got to get ready to go to the tournament.”